Villanova-Rutgers Preview

After being plagued by questionable shot selection for most of
his career, Scottie Reynolds is turning in a terrific senior
season.

Reynolds and No. 4 Villanova look for an eighth straight win
Wednesday night when they go on the road to try to hand Rutgers
a seventh consecutive loss.

While Reynolds has etched his name in Villanova lore for his
shot that beat Pittsburgh last year to send the Wildcats to
their second Final Four, he shot 40.0 percent over his first
three seasons. Reynolds has emerged as a different player in
2009-10 at 50.5 percent from the field, and has upped that
figure to an astounding 64.3 percent in conference play.

A game after scoring a season-high 36 points and making all five
of his 3-point tries in a win at Louisville, Reynolds scored 27
as the Wildcats (16-1, 5-0 Big East) defeated then-No. 11
Georgetown 82-77 on Sunday. He made 8 of 15 shots to top 50
percent for a career-high ninth straight game.

"He's had big scoring games," said coach Jay Wright of Reynolds.
"He made big shots. He's had some amazing games in his career.
But he's developed an efficiency about his game."

It's clear that Reynolds - fourth in the Big East in scoring at
19.3 points per game - no longer resembles the player known for
ill-advised shots and shaky decisions earlier in his career.

"You look back at plays that you made as a freshman or sophomore
and wonder who that guy is playing," Reynolds said. "You want to
be efficient and be able to play the right way."

As a sophomore, Reynolds turned in one of those poor efforts in
an 80-68 loss in the Wildcats' last visit to Rutgers (9-8, 0-5)
on Jan. 23, 2008. He missed 14 of 19 shots for 16 points.

That was the first of back-to-back wins over ranked teams for
the Scarlet Knights, who have since lost 14 straight to Top 25
opponents.

Rutgers remained one of two winless teams in the Big East
following a 73-64 loss at South Florida on Saturday. Leading
scorer Mike Rosario continued his woes in conference play with
13 points on 4-of-16 shooting.

Rosario is shooting 24.1 percent and averaging 11.0 points in
Big East games.

"I thought it was our offense that was out of sync," said coach
Fred Hill, an assistant at Villanova under Wright from 2001-05.
"Mike's been struggling and he wasn't very efficient tonight. We
had a couple opportunities where we dropped some easy passes.
You can't do that."

Rosario played much better in last season's 82-72 loss at
Villanova on Feb. 19 with a team-high 19 points. Reynolds led
the Wildcats with 21 points and Corey Stokes added 17 off the
bench.

Stokes is now a starter and has struggled in his last seven
games, averaging 6.4 points on 28.0 percent shooting. The junior
guard is shooting a career-low 34.7 percent after missing all
four shots against Georgetown.

The Wildcats are tied atop the Big East standings with No. 9
Pittsburgh as they begin a favorable stretch with four straight
games against unranked foes. The next Top 25 team they face is a
rematch with the Hoyas on Feb. 6.